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Essays On Crime, Conflict, Inequality And Trade, Andres Giraldo

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays that focus on economic development, conflict, international trade, and growth. In regard to the first two chapters on economic development, the data is taken from a developing country in which conflict and crime are not necessarily explained by ethnic diversity, Colombia. On the other hand, the chapter on trade and economic growth, it is used information from countries that signed a free trade agreement (Canada, Mexico, and United States).

In the first chapter, we evaluate the impact of quality of education on violence and crime. The paper exploits transfers of funds from the …

Comparisons Of Ad Valorem And Unit Tax In Two Different Industries, Kai Zhang

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the comparisons between unit and ad valorem tax in two different industries.

Chapter 1 considers an industry with one upstream monopolist and a fixed number of asymmetric downstream firms. I compare market outcomes from unit and ad valorem tax under three pricing schemes that the upstream monopolist can use, uniform pricing, third-degree price discrimination, and two-part tariffs. I find that ad valorem tax is always tax revenue preferred to unit tax when both are charged at the same layer as long as profit margin is positive. Downstream ad valorem tax improves total social welfare by relocating production …

Empirical Essays On Corruption, Sanchari Choudhury

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on explaining causal relationships between corruption and various economic and political policies and institutions like governmental decentralization in countries, membership to an international organization like the World Trade Organization (WTO), and federal regulatory constraints of industries in the United States. While identifying causality in issues concerning corruption and these above-mentioned factors is crucial, attaining it credibly is not straightforward. Measurement error and/or unobserved heterogeneity make a causal analysis challenging. This dissertation, therefore, attempts to apply state-of-the-art econometric techniques to circumvent the empirical issues underlying such studies and identify the causal link. Alongside the applications, this work strives …

Essays In Business Cycles And Asset Pricing, Ruiyang Hu

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates several key macroeconomic and asset pricing topics, with a particular interest in exploring the underlying driving forces of business cycles and asset market fluctuations. The dissertation includes three chapters, with the first two chapters solo-authored by me and the third chapter co-authored with Dr. Carlos Zarazaga.

The first chapter develops a dynamic and stochastic general equilibrium model, and exploits Bayesian inference methods to investigate the major sources of fluctuations in aggregate variables and asset prices. Taking into account the possibility that the growth of total factor productivity, labor-augmenting technology and investment-specific technology might consist of permanent and …

Essays In Development Economics, Manini Ojha

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays in development economics. In the first essay, I examine the impact of a health insurance scheme called the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), launched in 2008 in India, on schooling decisions and gender differences in education. At the outset, it is not entirely obvious as to whether health insurance would benefit education or have a detrimental impact. Healthier children could either mean greater future economic returns from schooling or greater value as child labour. More specifically, the questions I seek to answer are twofold: (1) Does access to a health insurance scheme designed …

Empirical Essays In Household Economics, Hao Li

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is consist of three empirical studies in economics. The first part empirically examines the effect of universal pre-k on labor force participation of fertility age women in Oklahoma. I investigate the policy effect from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. I apply the synthetic control method (SCM) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) data to identify the causal relationship between universal pre-k and female labor outcomes. I find that universal pre-k increases labor supply of women aged 25 to 45 in Oklahoma. The second empirical study focuses on how the birth outcomes of US children respond to exposure to …